Sixty-four seconds into a fight with rival Alexis Villa, Joe Warren was knocked out with a left hook after extending a right cross – just a little late in guarding the counter. He had never been knocked out or choked out in practice.

“It was strange for me,” he told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “I didn’t really remember anything until I got into the locker room.”

As champion Warren (7-2 MMA, 5-1 BFC) nears a fight with Pat Curran (16-4 MMA, 6-1 BFC), which serves as the first defense of his Bellator featherweight title and first since the knockout, the bruise to his brain has healed. So, too, has the one to his ego.

“Just because I got caught with a lucky punch – this happens to everybody in this sport,” Warren said. “It just happened to me in that fight.”

But he has a stronger sense of what can happen with a lapse, and with that, maybe a lesson underlined in what works best after so many years of high-level competition in a sister sport to MMA.

“What I’m the best at is I’m a world-class Greco-Roman wrestler,” Warren said. “I’ll jack your body and smash you on the ground. So, that’s what I’m going to keep doing.”

A multi-time champion on the international wrestling circuit, Warren has eyes on competing in the 2012 Olympics after a bid for the 2008 games was sacked by a positive test for marijuana. He still uses the drug – and is licensed in two states for medical cannabis – and cuts it out two months before a fight. With a new MMA coach and his own gym, he feels he’s settled into a groove.

But as his fight career moves foward, Warren is far more conscious of those tiny little components that keep him safe inside the cage: keeping his hands up, moving his head, holding his ground, and attacking the body. Because there is danger beyond the punches and kicks flying at him in the cage.

He isn’t concerned about aggressively engaging opponents, which has won him fans, or baiting them with his mouth, which has won him haters. Those things will never change. But he is talking about fighting at featherweight, where he hovers right at the 145-pound limit. Some of his opponents, meanwhile, cut in excess of 20 pounds to maximize their size.

“For longevity in the sport and safety for me, two pounds over a weight class is not safe for me,” Warren said. “It’s just not. Look at the monsters up there. I’m fighting with them every takedown. I’m like, ‘Jesus, what weight do you fight?'”

Warren plans to beat Curran when they fight at Bellator 60, which takes place March 9 at The Venue at Horseshoe Hammond in Hammond, Ind. (The event’s main card airs live on MTV2 and preliminary-card fights stream on Spike.com.) Then, he plans to wrestle at 60 kilos, or 132 pounds, at the Olympic team trials in hopes of representing his country this summer in London. He wants another fight against Patricky “Pitbull” Freire, whom he narrowly beat at Bellator 23.

A trip to bantamweight, however, is certain.

“That’s a guarantee,” Warren said. “I see myself as the next champ at 135 also.”

Curran, who once fought at lightweight, hasn’t lost since dropping to featherweight. With three consecutive wins, he captured a tournament title at Bellator 48. The cousin of UFC veteran Jeff Curran, he knocked out former Sengoku champ Marlon Sandro with punches and a head kick in the finals.

It’s probably one of the most dangerous fights for a guy returning from a knockout. But Warren doesn’t need to be taught a lesson in toughness.

“I’ve learned a lot from that,” he said of his recent setback. “I thought I was the best fighter I ever was for that fight. It happened so fast that it’s hard for me to be real upset about it. But as a champion, it took a piece of me away, my heart, and I’m pissed off.

“But the ego has healed up, so I have that mentality that I’m going to push hard and run straight through you, and now that I have striking and skills on the ground, my confidence grows every day.”

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